Recent projects

My Mom's birthday is this coming Friday. I know she really likes lapis, so I made her this pendant with copper wire:

I've been playing around with rivets again. This is my favorite so far. It's made out of hand-cut brass and copper discs which I then rounded in my dapping block. Then I riveted them to a copper band:

That's all for now. I have a few other new items but haven't managed to get good pix of them.

Rivets rock!

I am so happy about rivets. I have not yet perfected the process - probably a riveting hammer would help - but I have been able to make some pretty awesome things already.

Riveted rings

The ring on the left is 14 gauge bronze wire with a copper rivet. The ring on the right is 14 gauge copper wire with a copper disc, silver bead cap and copper rivet.

I tried to make a ring with a bowl-like disc, but it went all wrong. The rivet bent in both cases. I don't know if it was because I didn't cut the rivet short enough or because, due to the bowl shape, I couldn't get right down in the bowl with the hammer. I'm not sure a riveting hammer would help here because they are still large, even on the pointed end.

Hmm...

Playing around

I got some new toys over Christmas. Namely, a disc cutter and dapping set. Which means I can do stuff like this:

Please excuse the poor quality of the photo, which was taken in the evening with my phone. Hey, at least I'm updating my blog.

These are made out of brass, copper and sterling silver. Some things I'd like to improve on:

1. The edges of the discs are a little rough. Probably because I have a bargain basement disc cutter. I should have filed the edges more.
2. How to not mark up the rest of the sheet metal when using the disc cutter. Also probably because bargain basement. I want one of those Pepe ones but they are nearly $100.
3. Get coils tighter. Was also an issue with my pendant yesterday. It's completely due to my patience, or rather lack of.
4. How does one get the dome perfectly even in the dapping block? Is that even possible? You can't tell from this side, but I'm having trouble with my bead caps looking uneven.